"We should praise and thank Him that we are yet preserved as a Nation, and that the hope of a preserved nationality, and a restored unity and peace to our distracted country, is still kept--as the Vestal flame--aglow in the hearts of the people. As a People and a Nation we have much--very much--for which to give Him thanks and praise, not only for blessings bestowed upon us, but for evils which He has withheld.

"Let, therefore, all business pursuits be suspended on Thursday, the 24th, inst., and all the people, with devout hearts of thankfulness to 'Him whose ways are not as man's ways,' assemble at their respective places of worship, and offer thanksgiving and praise to Him for the blessings He has bestowed and the evils He hath withheld; and pray that He will so order the issues of battle, and the councils of State, as to give to us a restoration of our national unity in the bonds of brotherly peace."